VETERAN diver Peter Holbrook has just returned from a journey - 20,000 leagues under the sea to the revered Great Barrier Reef.

Peter, a member of Warrington Sub Aqua Club, has been diving for 30 years and visited the reef whilst staying with family in Queensland, Australia.

He joined up with a multi-national group of divers on the "Diversity" for a three-day trip covering more than 200 kilometres of the outer Great Barrier Reef.

Peter, of Fearnhead Lane, has dived at numerous locations around Britain and has also made dives in Cyprus and the Red Sea but says his expedition to the Reef wasn't quite the spectacle he was counting on.

He said: "It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience but I didn't come away with the 'wow factor'. Maybe I was expecting too much but pound for pound previous dives have been as, if not more, fulfilling. The level of visibility isn't as good as in the Red Sea which was quite disappointing."

"Saying that, if I was ever in Australia again, I'd have to go back."

During his trip to Australia, Peter made a total of nine dives in which he encountered a wide variety of sea life including red sea bass, barracuda, moray eels, rock cod and sharks.

Despite the dives taking place in the middle of the Australian winter, water temperatures of 24C were recorded and visibility at times was in excess of 20 metres.

During one of the dives, the guide handed Peter the job of feeding red sea bass, after they had bitten an inch or two of skin off his hand. Fortunately for Peter he was able to feed them without further incident.

The "Diversity" is one of few dive boats licensed to carry out whale research and underwater identification. Sadly, Peter and the rest of the group didn't manage to spot any whales, despite it being the season for Minke whales to migrate.

The finale of the trip was a dawn dive which gave the divers the opportunity to see night time sea life mixed with the normal day time occupants.

Peter's next diving expedition will be around the islands of Mull and Skye in October. More information on this and Peter's previous trips can be found on his website http://groups.msn.com/peterholbrookdivingphotos.